No, it's not unreasonable. I've forayed into independent contracting a couple of times and it's a bad experience both times. The first time the client kept putting off payment and then went bankrupt. I was the first debt he dismissed.
The second time, was recent when I was between contracting positions, the client had an application that was so screwed up that I didn't know where to begin, short of rebuilding it from scratch, but this wasn't the least of his problems, his servers we're about to fail and he really had no reasonable security set up. I caught a new position and had to divorce myself from his project, I simply didnt have the time to clean up this disaster, plus he wasn't willing to pay for the hours that it would take to clean up his mess. If you're going to moonlight, do it through an agency or recruiter, it'll guarantee payment and act as a buffer between you and the client. -- Scott Stewart ColdFusion Developer SSTWebworks 4405 Oakshyre Way Raleigh, NC. 27616 (919) 874-6229 (home) (703) 220-2835 (cell) -----Original Message----- From: Ian Skinner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 11:48 AM To: CF-Community Subject: Question for the independent contractors out there. I have a pretty good full time job that I have only been in for ~1/2 year and I am not really looking for anything new. I'm open any six figure, golden opportunity that cares to come knocking, but otherwise I am happy where I am at. As with most people, I could use a little extra each month and I have been getting some lukewarm feelers for some after hours, moonlighting contract work. I have a question for those of you who do this kind of thing day in and day out. Is it fair and reasonable to ask for some part of the payment up front? If so how much and how would you word it? I have been burnt in the past where the time it took to get payment put me in serious hurt with my personal finances. This is probably less of a concern now with a full time regular paycheck to back things up, but still I would like confidence that I am dealing with people who are going to pay me for what I do for them. If you where taking small 40 to 80 hour jobs over a period of a month or two would it be unreasonable to ask for 20% or something up front? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:251703 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
